Food items I always keep on hand

Pioneer Woman's show last Saturday showed her making meals from food she always has in her pantry.  This got me thinking about which food items I keep on hand all the time. 

1.  Ketchup.  I don't care for it, but Cliff absolutely cannot live without it.  He considers it a food group all by itself, and if we run out, it means a special trip to the store or a phone call to any relative who might be going past a store.  
2.  Dry beans of all kinds:  kidney, pinto, garbanzo.  Also lentils and split peas.  
3.  Popcorn.  I often have popcorn for supper.  
4.  spaghetti, macaroni, and dry noodles.  I don't use these as much as I did in the past, but I try to always have them available.  
5.  Canned tuna: if all else fails I can make tuna-noodle casserole or tuna salad sandwiches.
6.  Celery and carrots, because I add them to anything imaginable:  Today I have pinto beans cooking, and you will find celery and chopped carrots in the mix.  I've also added lots of...
7.  Onions and garlic.  How can anyone live without them?  I like to chop onions and freeze them, so if I run out of fresh ones I have some to cook with.  It's nice if I'm in a hurry, too.  Just take a cup to the freezer and dip into the freezer bag.     
8.  Potatoes.  Cliff doesn't get mashed potatoes as often as he would like (that would be every day), but it's handy to nuke a potato in the microwave to go with a meal.  Quick, filling, and easy.  
9.  Cabbage.  It's cheap, and we love it boiled or stir-fried.  If I stir-fry it, I add onions, celery, garlic, and carrots, because I always have them in the house.  I add it to any kind of beef stew, also.  Slaw is good, but I don't seem to make it much any more.  
10.  Miracle Whip
11.  Sweet pickle relish
12.  Grape jelly
13.  Rolled oats and cream of wheat, because that's what we usually have for breakfast. 
14.  Raisins, to dress up number 13.  
15.  Bananas, unless we don't get to the store often enough.  
16.  Lettuce and tomatoes, most of the time.   
17.  Yellow corn meal, because soups and beans require corn bread.  
18.  Crisco, because there really IS a difference in shortenings.  


In the freezer, of course we have plenty of beef at present; when we weren't butchering on a regular basis, I usually only bought ground beef, because it is economical and versatile.  
There's cooked, diced chicken and frozen chicken broth that I prepare and divide into portions periodically for casseroles and soups.  There are two-cup portions of kidney beans I cook and freeze for chili and meatless casseroles.     
As long as I have all these items in the house, there is no problem with figuring out what's for supper.  

Dinner will always be the noon meal around here

Every so often I tell people this, just so it's clear what meal I'm talking about.  I realize the vast majority of people consider the evening meal to be "dinner".  I came from farming people, and on the farm, dinner is the biggest and most important meal of the day.  I remember visiting Uncle Leo and his family; at straight up noon, Uncle Leo would come in all sweaty and tired from whatever work he was doing in the field.  He and Uncle Carl helped one another a lot with farm work, so sometimes he'd be there too.  Anyway, they had been working hard and were starving, and they expected a big meal.  Believe me, Aunt Mary knew how to set a table fit for hungry men (and kids).  And she could do this while spending the morning canning green beans and tomatoes, too.  
Before Mother married, she worked at various farms as a "hired girl", and she used to talk about how those farm hands (my dad was one) could eat.  If we had visitors that really scarfed their food down, she would say, "This is just like feeding threshers!"
She loved to see people eat.  
So yes, Dinner is at noon here.  
One faithful reader expressed surprise that we are still having our main meal of the day at noon; she thought that once Cliff retired, we'd move the main meal to suppertime. (yes, that's supper.  Not dinner.)  
Now that Cliff gets up by 6 A.M. and goes to bed by 10 P.M., I haven't been cooking an evening meal at all.  We both need help with our weight, so we agreed to eat something like a bowl of cereal or a small salad for supper.  If there are low-calorie leftovers from dinner (the noon meal), we might partake of those, but only small servings.


As I expected, squash bugs have pretty much wiped me out of the zucchini business.  In the past, once the squash plants were dead, they moved on to the cucumber vines and killed them also.  I have already replanted zucchini and cucumbers; last year I was able to keep the squash bugs from killing the late crop; but I never count on anything.  They've wiped me out too many times in the past.   
I think I have enough green beans to pick today to go with our rib-eye steak.  Yes, we're having steak again.  We have to use up last year's beef!  It's a tough job, but somebody has to do it.  We'll also have corn on the cob again, since it's ready.  Oh, and Pennsylvania red cabbage, which I haven't prepared before.  
I've mentioned before that when I was growing up, Mother called corn on the cob "roasting ears".  However, to my childish ears it sounded like one word.  I thought it was "roastinears" until I was almost grown.   
OK, I'm off to pick some green beans.  

Things I looked at this morning

This is a flower on the hibiscus plant I grew from a seed my cousin gave me.  Isn't it breathtaking?  

Almost six inches across!  Don't you just love old yardsticks?  My mom broke a few like this on my butt as a kid; it was her choice weapon for spanking me.  Probably because there was always one close at hand, thanks to her wallpapering sideline.  


When I removed the strawberry plants from the bed in front of the house, I hated to see that space just sit there growing weeds, so I grabbed a ten-cent envelope of flower seeds I had on hand and planted them, without reading the envelope.  

This is what I got.  

Here they are from the other side.  I wish I knew what kind of flower this is; I'd be sure and avoid buying that kind of seed from now on.

Here's another mystery plant I purchased over two years ago.  I like it.  

Here are the walnuts I've gathered so far.  I spread them out in the barn so I can periodically stomp them to get the outside hulls dry enough to remove.  Someone left a comment saying she was going to pick up black walnuts, but after reading about them, she decided it was too much trouble.  Honestly, it's no trouble at all.  You pick them up from beneath the trees, which I consider fun because it's done in the great outdoors.  You remove the nasty hulls:  I used to spread them on the driveway where the car would run over them a few times, which works fine except occasionally the whole nut will get cracked.  Removing the vestiges of the hulls will stain your fingers, but it eventually wears off.  You let the hulled walnuts dry for a couple of weeks, and then all you have to do is crack them and pick out the nutmeats.  My mom always stored the hulled nuts in a garage or shed; on cold winter days she would put on a coat, go outside with a hammer, and crack a dishpan full of them.  She would bring the cracked nuts inside, and in the evening she and Daddy would pick out the nutmeats as they sat around chatting and waiting for bedtime.  
I planted beets in the spring, and only a few of them came up.  I think I made borscht once, and I left the rest of the beets in the ground all this time.  Today I pulled up one huge beet, peeled and diced it, and microwaved it.

The color of the beet was interesting, sort of streaked with white.  I didn't know if it would taste good or not.  

That five-month-old beet turned out just fine, and I fixed it up Harvard style.    

Cliff wanted me to take a picture of his plate, so here it is.  Stuffed peppers, green beans, and Harvard beets, all brought in from the garden this morning.  The hamburger in the stuffed peppers, of course, is from Sir Loin, Bonnie's calf from last year.

My son will be here in a few days

We see our son once a year, for a week.  This is when I hold my annual cook-a-thon.  Most of the time it's just Cliff and me here, and I've become lazy about cooking.  Of course, the fact that we both fatten up like prize hogs when I cook the way I did when the kids were growing up takes a lot of fun out of cooking.  But for this one week, I try my best to remember how to make all that carbohydrate-laden stuff the kids grew up on.  This week I'm planning meals, making notes so I'll be sure and get the stuff I need at the store.
  
Here are some breakfast meals I have planned so far:  Cinnamon rolls; rice-and-raisins (one of Jim's favorites that I'll probably make more than one morning); and biscuits and gravy.  
Dinner meals planned:  Home-made chicken pot pie; spaghetti and garlic bread; tenderloin sandwiches; Meat loaf, noodles, mashed potatoes and veggies of some sort.
  
Desserts:  Oreo Dessert and brownie pudding with ice cream.  Probably strawberry shortcake, but I'll be using strawberries from the freezer.  The berries are almost done producing for this year.  Cherries are starting to ripen, so I might make some kind of cherry cobbler... if I get in the mood to pick cherries and take the seeds out of each cherry, one at a time.  Sticky business, that.  And tedious.
    
I still have more meals to plan, but this is what I have in mind so far.
  
Oh, on Saturday, when other family members are coming to join us, we'll have brisket, pulled pork, potato salad, macaroni salad, etc. etc.
  
Any suggestions for my remaining meals?

When the cat’s away, the mouse eats differently

Cliff and his sister went to Kansas to visit their brother. I opted to stay home because the men all go out to the shop and work on stuff, and I’m left in the house, bored silly.

With Cliff here, I try to keep things nutritious and balanced. I aim to serve plenty of vegetables and cook things that look colorful on the plate.

When Cliff isn’t here, I revert back to the eating habits of my youth… strange habits indeed. For instance, here’s my total intake for yesterday: I ate oatmeal with Cliff before he left. Later I ate my daily apple. Lunch was two Nathan’s hot dogs. Mid-afternoon I brought in a nice big turnip, peeled, sliced, and cooked it, and had creamed turnips. I’d forgotten how good fall turnips are, sweet and tender. Supper was popcorn.

Today, because there was some leftover corn bread, I had corn bread broken up and soaked in milk for breakfast. It’s noon, and I’m still full.

When I get hungry again, I’m fixing these two turnips for myself, because one wasn’t enough yesterday. Cliff hates turnips.

I’ve already decided what I’ll make when my husband comes home tomorrow: Tuna-noodle casserole! It’s one of my favorite cool-weather comfort foods.

Speaking of food, I'll soon be taking the pancake/waffle survey. Final results: 21 votes for pancakes, 24 for waffles, 8 no preference, and 1 peculiar character who hates them both. I'd like that person to tell us who he or she is; I don't think I ever met a person who hated pancakes and waffles!

Too much at once!

This morning I figured that since I have about two thousand butternut squashes, I'd better make squash soup again. Cliff and I both enjoyed it, so why not?

I went to the freezer to get some of my home-made chicken broth to use in the soup, and realized I was down to my last quart.

No problem; I had a ten-pound bag of chicken leg quarters. I'll boil those, skin them, and chop and save the meat in two- and four-cup amounts in freezer bags for use in chicken jambalaya and chicken gumbo... and countless other healthy dishes. I'll save the broth and freeze it in quart bags.

So I got out that bag of frozen chicken and put it in the sink to thaw.

Sometime today I realized that I still have chips, but no Russian eggplant caviar in which to dip them. After Cliff went to work, I put two eggplants and a couple of peppers in the oven to roast so I could use my chips.

Then I remembered I was making squash soup... and that I had taken ten pounds of chicken out of the freezer that I was supposed to cook.

Too many things at once!

I checked the bag of chicken and found it still half frozen, so I took it out to the garage refrigerator.

I did get the squash soup made, and sent a serving of it to my sister-in-law when she got home from work.

I did get the eggplant caviar done, and dipped some chips in it for my supper.

Whew. I'm glad that's all done. I'll tend to the chicken tomorrow. I'm thinking that since my garden is giving me bunches of okra, we might soon be having some chicken gumbo very soon.

Snowy morning

The weather-guessers guessed right this time: they've forecast two to four inches of snow. It's still coming down. So pretty and still!

I don't know who won that contest. If you look at the results now, I came in second. But I think I may have gotten several of my votes after the deadline. Whatever happens, it was fun.

I may not be on the computer much today; I'm fixing dinner for Cliff's nephew and his family, and since I was cooking anyhow, I invited the son-in-law and however many of his kids want to come. And of course the oldest grandson, who loves to eat. And Cliff's sister who lives next door. So it's a big cooking day for me!

We'll have roast beef, mashed potatoes and gravy, Old Settler's beans, and home-made rolls. Now we're going to need something green in there, and I didn't plan ahead very well. The only green stuff in the freezer of which I have enough is peas, and lots of people don't like peas. However, to round out the meal, I will probably fix peas. Or maybe peas and carrots.

I've made my sister's lemon pie for the first time today. Of course I licked the pan, and it was so good! Nephew Scotty loves cherry cheesecake, so I always try to make that when he's here. I had an extra pie crust, so I also made a pumpkin pie. And Cliff's sister baked a cake.

I wonder why Cliff and I can't lose weight? Seems like every weekend there's some sort of pitfall that deters us from healthy eating!

Anyhow, I'll check in when I can.

I love a bargain, and I hate to waste money.

Every time Cliff and I are in Richmond at Walmart, I check out the meat that has been marked down 40% because the "sell by" date is almost up. Today I spotted a package of nice center-cut pork chops. We don't eat a lot of meat of any kind, especially pork; but I can't pass up a bargain.

Rather than freeze it like I usually do my bargain meats, I put four of them in the bottom of a Corning Ware dish, spread Stove-top stuffing over the meat, and spread a can of cream-of-chicken soup over that. I covered it and baked it for almost an hour.

Someone I once worked with told me about this simple pork-chop fix, and until we changed to healthier eating habits I fixed it often. It really is better than it looks. Normally I used Cream of Mushroom soup, but I didn't have any today.

I can always find marked-down bread at that Walmart, too; and today was no exception. I bought a square loaf of sour-dough for a buck.

This time it wasn't such a bargain; it was pretty dried out.

"Oh well," I told Cliff. "You win some, you lose some."

After he went out to the shop, I remembered another dish I used to make a lot: bread pudding. I figured we may as well have two unhealthy items for supper, because I really hate to throw out that bread; I paid good money for it. With whiskey sauce poured over it, it is hands down the best bread pudding I've ever made. Of course, the fact we haven't had it in years might be a factor.

Granddaughter Natalie was here to help us eat this bargain-based meal, and when Cliff's sister gets home after twelve hours of working, she'll be glad to have supper ready and waiting. Tomorrow Cliff and I will have nice, healthy Chicken Gumbo. With maybe a small piece of bread pudding for dessert.

My weekend so far

My daughter had a really busy week, since it was the grand climax of her company's busy season. To celebrate the end of all that work, I made one of her favorite comfort dishes, potato soup... with corn bread on the side, of course. Her mother-in-law and nephew came visiting from Carthage, so they joined us for dinner (that's the noon meal around here).

Cliff's youngest sister and her husband came Friday night, in order to be in the area for his family Christmas gathering yesterday. They brought their dog, Mindy, and she stayed with us while they went to their gift exchange. She's a well-behaved dog, and she and Sadie, being of similar size, love to frolic and wrestle around the house. Since both dogs are prolific shedders, I shudder to think how much hair we've consumed in our food this weekend... but that's just fiber, right?

Cliff's oldest sister lives next door in our old house. She's working twelve-hour days all weekend, and her mini-Dachshund, Angel, gets lonely; so we bring her over here for two or three hours, a couple times a day.

Then yesterday my oldest granddaughter, Amber, called and asked if was OK to come out and spend the night. She knows she'll get more computer time here than she would at home sharing Internet hours with her mom. She brought her mini-pin, Sophie, who presented me with a Yule log on the floor as soon as she came in the house. It's nice to know that even a dog can get in the spirit of the season. We enjoy our granddaughter and our granddog too, in spite of the occasional accident.

I honestly planned to fix some sort of healthy, low-fat meals today, to make up for the cream in the potato soup yesterday (Cliff's older sister finished off the soup when she got home from her long workday). Unfortunately, I have such a stiff neck I can't turn my head without great pain, so I'm going to plan B: Great Northern Beans cooked with a remnant of our Thanksgiving ham and plenty of onion. With, you guessed it, corn bread on the side.

I'd cook our usual oatmeal or cream-of-wheat for breakfast, but granddaughter Amber really loves pancakes, so I'll cater to her. To go with the pancakes, I have some totally unhealthy, salt-laden sausage ready to cook.

I'll make sure Cliff takes his Lipitor; it's all I can do for his heart in times like these. That, and limit his portions.

Food from my childhood

I spent some time this morning on Five-Dollar Dinners and Living On A Dime; links to those sites are over on the left-hand side of my blog, not far down the page.

Honestly, I have no problem cooking frugally, but I like to add to my store of recipes once in a while. So I check out those websites for pointers.

As often happens this time of year, I somehow got started on a nostalgia trip back to my childhood. It occurred to me that there are some foods I loved as a kid that nobody fixes these days.

Creamed macaroni, which I recall eating at home and at Grandma's. I loved the stuff! Someone must still make it, because I found a recipe online (although I'm sure my mom never put garlic in hers).

Macaroni and tomatoes. Cliff's Aunt Gertrude is the only person I know who still makes this! Except for her, I know of nobody who fixes this dish these days.

Breaded tomatoes, similar in taste to the above, but with a different texture.

Creamed peas, creamed carrots... or creamed peas AND carrots.

Am I the only person who still makes Harvard beets?

I just realized that all those veggie dishes contain a tiny bit of sugar. No wonder I was crazy about those: my sweet tooth loved them!

When I was growing up, there was no eating out at all, unless we were on a road trip. Why? Because there wasn't any fast food where we lived, in the country or small towns. When we lived in Eagleville at the telephone office, there was a drug store across the road from us, and once in a blue moon we'd have a fountain cherry Coke or a malted milk; that was the extent of our dining out.

My mom was a fantastic cook; I've never tasted fried chicken or mashed potatoes to equal what she made. With cooking like that, who would want to eat out anyhow?

Even when we moved to Kansas City we didn't dine away from home much, although I remember getting ice cream at In-A-Tub sometimes. Once I was visiting my sister and we all went to The Forum Cafeteria, downtown Kansas City. I thought that was some fancy eating!

Oh yeah, and if my mom and I were shopping downtown, we'd have a Hoagie (a meal on a bun) at Kresge's. I think they cost a quarter each.

Hmmm, this entry goes nowhere, but I'll go ahead and hit "publish" anyhow.

Are there any foods you ate as a child that nobody cooks any more?

Hamburger Stew

Let's face it, with temperatures hovering near the freezing point, it's time for hearty soups and stews. A local small-town grocery had ground beef for $1.69 a pound; I used a pound-and-a-half of it for hamburger stew. I've blogged about this before, so I won't go into great detail. But it always amazes me how many meals can come from a small amount of ground beef when you use it for stew.

Any form of vegetable stew gives me an opportunity to find veggies in the freezer that need to be used; I just toss them in the mix, and nobody's the wiser. At some time in the past, I thought I had a hankering for Lima beans. After serving some of them with a meal, I realized I wasn't such a big fan of Lima beans and the half-empty bag lay languishing in the freezer. Yesterday, though, they made a great addition to my hamburger stew.



The neighbor who always gives us fish to eat was getting his garden ready for the freeze that's forecast, so Cliff went over there and picked some tomatoes, both green ones and ripe ones. I skinned some of those ripe tomatoes and added them to the stew. Yum! (Cliff came back with more fish, too.)

My daughter's family ate stew with us Saturday. Cliff and I had stew that evening. I fixed something different yesterday at lunch, but we had stew for supper. And there's still a couple of servings left. No, we're not tired of it yet.

Because there's also corn bread left, I asked Cliff what he thought about my getting some cooked beans out of the deep freeze for today. He thought that was a grand idea, until I remembered the bacon I bought at the local grocer's when I got the ground beef... it was "buy one, get one free". And I saw those ripe tomatoes on the table.


So the beans went back into the freezer... they hadn't started to thaw... and so did the corn bread.

We're having BLT's today! And who knows, we might have fried green tomatoes tomorrow.

By the way, I'm learning to Twitter. Haaaaaaa!

Christmas stuff

Cliff and I started putting on weight around Thanksgiving, like everybody does. The past couple of years we've done fairly well getting through the holidays, knowing that we need to take care of Cliff's heart and keep weight off my compromised knees.

This year, I'm sorry to say, we haven't done so well. I haven't even gotten on the scales lately, nor has Cliff; because we know the news won't be good.

Where he works, they had their "goodie day" yesterday, where everybody takes finger food and sets it out for all to consume. Normally I tell him I don't want to see any of it, because it isn't good for us. For some reason, I told him to bring some goodies home this year.

Well, you should see it. Chips, and plates of summer sausage and cheese. Candy and cookies.

Luckily two granddaughters will be here this evening to help consume the spoils. Also luckily, I'm sure their parents will be glad to take some of this stuff off our hands. If the grandson shows up, I know he'll assist. Although sometimes we don't see him on weekends, even though he lives here.

I sure do dread getting on those scales, but at some point after Tuesday, it has to happen.

We're going to go visit my filly, Libby, at the trainer's today; I'll take my camera.

Although I linked to my favorite Christmas post on my other journal, I'll put it here also for my strictly Blogger friends; it was done three years ago on AOL: Click HERE.

I've had a copy of that movie on VHS for years, but last week I bought it on DVD as a gift for myself; now I go right to my favorite scenes and watch them, any time I'm feeling down.

Because it truly is a wonderful life; sometimes I just need to be reminded.

What a day!

I spent two hours in a dentist's chair today. Afterward, Cliff and I went by a local grocery store (NOT a Walmart) and spent another $100 on stuff for our one and only holiday meal, to be held this coming Sunday.

Then I baked. And baked. And boiled and cooked and baked some more.

After swearing I would NOT make Oreo Dessert (the oldest grandson's favorite), I made it anyway. I refused to let him touch it tonight, however.

I did allow him to sample the hot hamburger dip, since I wanted to test it myself. We both breathed sighs of satisfaction as we dipped and munched. We each had a handful of home-made caramel popcorn, too. Somebody has to do the quality-testing around here.

Tomorrow morning I begin marinating the brisket for Sunday. And make the cherry cheesecake pie.

One thing about it, after I started cooking all that stuff (with Christmas music playing in the background), I almost felt a tiny nudge of Christmas spirit.